cover image Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness from Calef Brown

Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness from Calef Brown

Calef Brown, Houghton Mifflin, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-547-21540-2

In jokily menacing poems, Brown delivers satisfyingly off-kilter rhymes: "Jack is a rare wolf./ A covered with hair wolf./ A crouch in the doorway/ to give you a scare wolf." An assortment of weird and memorable figures include "the Oompachupa Loompacabra," which devours goats by luring them with chocolate bars; the "vumpire" ("When managers argue,/ he makes them feel sleepy"); and Dorian Gray's opposite, "Gory René." The outlandish humor and stylized acrylics, a balance of spooky and whimsical, put an entertaining spin on Halloween. Ages 5–8. (Sept.)